The Salamander Festival in Homewood marks magical and risky migration of the spotted amphibian

A spotted salamander crosses a road near Shades Creek during a mid-winter migration. The salamanders live underground but typically emerge with the first warm rain of the year for mating. (Michelle Blackwood)

This year's Salamander Festival in Homewood arrives Saturday, tempered this time by the recent decimation of the celebrated amphibians during a mid-winter night migration down Shades Mountain.

The festival, from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at the Homewood Community Center, boasts the Herb Trotman bluegrass band, a Zulu dance troupe, amphibian-armed biologists, arts and crafts and a chocolate fountain. It comes about the time of the annual migration. This year, however, will include an unfortunate memory.

On Jan. 10, during a warm evening rain, the spotted salamanders were run over by cars heading from an evening event at Homewood High School along South Lakeshore Drive.

Michelle Blackwood, Friends of Shades Creek president, said 41 salamanders were killed, the most they've seen in more than a decade.

Typically, the first warm rain of the year coaxes the salamanders out of their subterranean existence to get down the hill and do a little ritual dancing and vernal pool mating along Shades Creek.

On some nights, salamander well-wishers, rousted out of bed by organizers' calls, scurry down to this part of Homewood to witness the migration and maybe help a few across the street and perpetuate their numbers. The spotted salamanders, Blackwood said, can range up to 10 inches long and live past 30 years.

"Some go slow, and some go really fast," Blackwood said. "It's in their DNA that they're going to do this."

After the Jan. 17 event, the city of Homewood has lent traffic cones to cordon off the road during salamander rush hours, which helped after a wrestling event at the high school, Blackwood said.

The deceased salamanders are being examined by a Samford University biologist to assess the genetic diversity of the group on Shades Mountain.

Blackwood said watching the salamanders on a rain-soaked morning reminds her of other ritual journeys by animals, such as the American bison, which are a snapshot that go back centuries.

"It's an animal that lives here, and it's still migrating," Blackwood said. "That's kind of cool. It's kind of magical."